Newsletters: Audience
Identifying your audience is the single most important thing you can do in any form of communication. The non-profit newsletter is no different. Do a good job at identifying and knowing your audience and you will have a lively, successful newsletter that people will look forward to and will read. Some large corporations spend thousands of dollars on audience research to identify the types of people they wish to serve with their publication. You probably don’t have that kind of money but thankfully you don’t need it. You already know a surprising amount about your audience.
Get a picture in your mind of the type of person you hope to reach. Ask yourself a few key questions:
Are my reader’s mostly male, female or a mix? If they are a mix, what is the ratio?
Are they single or married?
What is their age group or groups?
What is their level of education?
Besides your organization what are their other interests?
People in the nonprofit arena tend to be hands-on and quite knowledgeable about their donors, volunteers and clients. With a little brainstorming you can come up with more questions that can help you drill down into the probable likes, dislikes, habits, characteristics and demographic data of your readers. If you take a few minutes to give your best guesses to a few key questions, you’ll get a good idea of the type of reader you have. Keep your reader-types in mind throughout the newsletter production process. It’s particularly important to keep this archetypical reader in mind when choosing article topics and writing.
There are going to be audiences common to many non-profits that you’ll want to serve with your newsletter like: clients, supporters, volunteers, your board, and others.
Your clients or consumers will want to read the newsletter to find out about programs they may have participated in. They will be interested in any changes in programs and will want to know about any new programs they may eligible for.
Your agency’s supporters, both financial and in-kind, are valued and appreciated. To help encourage continued support they should be recognized in every newsletter. The names of individual donors are too many to mention but you can certainly thank them as a group. Some corporate or foundation supporters require their name be publicized as a condition of a financial grant. Don’t forget to do so.
Your volunteers are as valuable, maybe even more so, than your financial supporters. The volunteers who give their time and talent to your agency deserve your appreciation and gratitude. The newsletter is a perfect place to show how much you care about their efforts and to trumpet their successes. Your volunteers will be looking to be mentioned.
Your board of directors is a busy bunch and is often disconnected from the day-to-day operation of the agency. The newsletter keeps them informed about the events and accomplishments of the agency. They will be looking in the newsletter for accomplishments they can brag about to other community leaders.
Other stakeholders with an interest in the newsletter include staff, vendors, sister organizations, elected officials and other community leaders. Don’t forget to include these audiences in your mailing list. You can also send out a survey with your first few issues and learn even more about your audience.
Remember, an interesting newsletter takes a lot of time and resources to produce so get the most out of it by making it a newsletter people want to read. One important key to a successful, well-read newsletter is to use careful consideration when you identify your audience. Think about your audience and they’ll think of you and your agency.
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